Animal hoarding: The crime based on faulty love

Last Friday, Greeley police reported finding 102 animals in a house including 30 dead cats, 52 live ones and rabbits, rats, 10 dogs and two guinea pigs. No one was home at the time.
In late July, more than 400 animals were rescued from a suspected hoarding situation at a West Oahu, Hawaii, property.
Days later, authorities found 260 living and dead Chihuahuas in a garbage-strewn Dearborn, Mich. home.
Sound familiar? It should. According to the Englewood-based Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), nearly 250,000 animals are victims of animal hoarding each year.
HSUS says this abuse differs from other types of animal cruelty in that the perpetrators don’t always accept or recognize the cruelty they inflict on their animals. Rather, animal hoarders usually ardently believe they are saving or rescuing the animals they imprison.
In a recent article in the Detroit Free Press, Dale Bartlett, a spokesman for the society, said: “These people are driven to acquire animals … and quite often they believe in their hearts and souls that they are the only people who can care for a particular group of animals.”
In many instances, such as in the Dearborn case, conditions are often filthy and can lead to medical problems for the animals.
“They believe they are saving the animals’ lives when in fact when one animal is sick, they’re infecting the other animals,” Linda Lawrence, a veterinary social worker at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University, told the Free Press “It just does not connect that they are hurting them.”
Dr. Gerald Shiener, a Wayne State University psychiatrist, told the paper a condition often prevalent among hoarders is obsessive compulsive disorder, which is characterized by repetitive and ritualized thoughts and actions. He said it is a serious condition that can cause a person to lose social skills.
“These people lose a sense of what’s socially appropriate,” Shiener said. “No one would live surrounded by dogs and dog feces unless they had some sort of underlying problem.”
Treatment is difficult and has a low rate of success, the HSUS says on its website. Typically a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and some type of psychopharmacological intervention is recommended.
Removing animals from the hoarding situation can temporarily help solve the problem, the society says, but without long-term psychological intervention, animal hoarding has a nearly 100 percent recidivism rate.
* * *
Here’s a new one: Finch-fighting.
Authorities recently arrested 19 people from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey and seized 150 birds in a house raid on an alleged bird-fighting operation, according to an Associated Press report.. Most of the birds were saffron finches, which are small birds native to South America, and a few were canaries, officials said.
Police said they made the arrests just as spectators had placed bets and were getting ready to watch the birds fight at a home in Shelton, just west of New Haven, Conn. Authorities say they seized $8,000 in alleged betting money.
Authorities often deal with cock fighting, but police and animal experts said they had not heard of fighting involving finches and canaries before.
“We’re blazing new territory,” Wayne Kasacek, an assistant director with the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, was quoted as saying. “This is something for law enforcement and for us to learn about.”
Experts say finches can be territorial and aggressive if placed in overcrowded conditions.
“There’s usually a greater amount of space needed for welfare and comfort for finches than you would think,” said Dr. Brian Speer, co-author of “Birds for Dummies.”
Canaries are normally passive, but also can be aggressive if overcrowded, Speer said.
* * *
Heemeyer, my overweight black Labrador, has been given the okay to resume normal activities after operations for torn ACLs in both of his back legs. And not a moment too soon. He weighed in Friday at nearly 17 pounds overweight. Let this be a lesson for you (and an expensive one for me): Don’t let your dog get overweight and place too much stress on his body.

PET CALENDAR

Parade of Ponds – The Misha May Foundation in Lakewood will hold its 11th Annual Parade of Ponds Tour on Aug. 29-30. The foundation will received 100 percent of the proceeds from tickets purchased through Misha May, whose mission is to provide options, training and rehabilitation for homeless mixed-breed dogs, or any dogs in need, until they find a permanent home. Contact mishamayfoundation@gmail.comAnimal studies –
Morris Animal Foundation is announcing 35 new companion animal studies. The foundation will fund more than 200 new, continuing and veterinary student scholar studies in 2009-2010. These studies are available for study sponsorship—which is a a way to help support research leading to treatments and prevention strategies for diseases Sponsorships start at $3,000 . Contact the Denver-based foundation at sponsorship@MorrisAnimalFoundation.org

Travel and OutWest editor Kyle Wagner grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Lake County, Ill., and Naples, Fla., before moving to Denver in 1993, where she reviewed restaurants for Westword before moving to The Denver Post in 2002. She considers the best days to be those that involve her teenage daughters and doing something outside, preferably mountain biking or whitewater rafting.

Dean Krakel is a photo editor (primarily sports) at The Denver Post. A native of Wyoming, he has authored three books, "Season of the Elk," "Downriver" and "Krakel's West." An avid kayaker, rafter, mountain biker, trail runner, telemark skier and backpacker, Dean's outdoor adventures have taken him around the world.

Douglas Brown was raised about 30 miles west of Philadelphia in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he spent a lot of time running around in the woods and fields (where he hunted and explored), and in the ocean (where he surfed and stared at the horizon). Now he lives in Boulder and spends as much time hiking, running, skiing and boarding the High Country (and the Boulder foothills) as possible.

Ricardo Baca is the entertainment editor and pop music critic at The Denver Post, as well as the founder and executive editor of Reverb and the co-founder of The UMS. Happy days often involve at least one of these: whitewater rafting, snowshoeing, vintage Vespas, writing, camping, live music, road trips, snowboarding or four-wheeling.